One of President Barack Obama’s highest-ranking female appointees stopped in Colorado Springs on Tuesday afternoon to energize Democratic women who, for the most part, didn’t really need energizing.

+ captionHarriet Tuckman marches along Garden of the Gods Road with the Women for Obama march to the polls Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. A group of about 60 made the march from the local Obama headquarters on Centennial Blvd. to the Citizens Service Center on Garden of the Gods Road to drop off their ballot. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock) Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

The federal Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, told a gathering of about 60 women (and a few men) that women’s rights would be in serious danger under a Republican administration.

The Democratic women had gathered at a north Colorado Springs campaign office Tuesday for a solidarity campaign event, “Women for Obama March to the Polls.” The march was scheduled on the 97th anniversary of a women’s suffrage parade in New York City, and several women were wearing symbolic colors from the time — white, purple and green, for purity, dignity and hope.

Sebelius reminded the marchers that GOP candidate Mitt Romney has said he would de-fund Planned Parenthood, and said that the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade could be overturned if Romney is elected Nov. 6.

All Colorado Democrats, she said, need to make sure the Centennial State goes for Obama.

“Your voices have always been important, but they’re more important now than they’ve ever been before,” Sebelius told the group, and recalled that Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won by only 10,000 votes in 2010.

The crowd marched a few blocks west to drop off their ballots, at the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s offices on Garden of the Gods Road.

“It’s an exciting event. It’s a great way to turn people out to vote,” said Kim Lang, a 27-year-old student at Colorado Technical University.

Another marcher, Cindy Draving, said the event was “a good way to let people know there are Democrats in El Paso County.”
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